Here are scripture & preaching for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, February 23, 2025.
Here also are the call to worship and the prayer of invocation.
* Call to Worship Jesus’ preaching adapted
One: Jesus has said, that we might hear:
to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate.
All: We shall bless those who curse, pray for those who abuse.
One: If anyone strikes us on the cheek, we shall offer the other also;
All: and from anyone who takes away our coat we shall not withhold even our shirt.
One: Let us give to everyone who begs from us;
All: and if anyone takes away our material goods, we shall let such things go.
One: Let us do to others as we would have them do to us.
All: If we love those who love us, what credit is that to us?
One: For even sinners love those who love them, a transaction more than a grace.
All: If we do good to those who do good to us, what credit is that to us?
One: For even sinners do the same.
All: If we lend to those from whom we hope to receive, what credit is that to us?
One: Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
All: But we shall love our enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.
One: The reward will be great, and we shall be children of the Most High;
for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
All: Let us be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
One: We shall judge knowing that we likewise will be judged.
All: We shall not condemn, and we will not be condemned.
One: We shall forgive, and we will be forgiven.
All: We shall give, and it will be given to us.
One: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,
will be put into our laps;
All: for the measure we give will be the measure we get back.
One: This gracious dynamic begins now, greeting one another and thus enacting:
“The peace of the Lord be with you.”
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Invocation In unison
Gracious Lord, there is every reason to fret these days. There are causes everywhere for us to be angry, even to act in wrath. Worse, our faith in you as good and our hope for goodness to reign can become a chance for sin, that we might focus our every thought on all that we deem not good, all that shocks and galls, rather than on what reassures and reigns as eternal and arriving also in time, every moment a realization of your steadfast presence.
Free us from a faith practice that is reactive rather than centered. Save us from the spirit of accusation that would have us satisfied in casting aspersion; fill us instead with a spirit of resilience and grace. Help us to see that forgiveness and mercy, these miscast as weak or surrendering, might instead be seen in the light of the cross, your strength in faithfulness by which wickedness, born out on your body, comes to a dead stop.
During these dreadful days of reckless politics playing out so recklessly, capricious harm committed for no good purpose, we pray that we might act in kindness, in courage, in truth, for your sake, forgiving and raised to eternal life, Your Christ, in whom we pray. Amen.
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